Merelee River
The Merelee River is a river in the Kingdom of Daventry to the west of Castle Daventry and the town of Daventry. Background The river is one of Daventry's main landmarks that can be seen from Castle Daventry itself.KoS, pg 10, SNW, pg, TFC, pg. A portion of it lies to the southwest of Castle Daventry and west of Daventry town, about a half mile from the town, flowing between the north and south. The west road crosses over the river, via a wooden bridge which then leads up to the festival grounds where the ancient stump was located.SNW,37, 79, 112, 212 Far to the south is another bridge, and it is apparently the only other point across for many miles, before the river can be forded.TFC, pg In a place far downriver, beyond a low bluff, and the south western Old Woods, a vast marsh enveloped the riverbank.KQTFC, 10 The marsh was the home of the witch, Sinofas, and was the location of the Floating Castle when it had attacked the kingdom. The Merelee River lies roughly west of the River Fools and Raging River. It may flow from Serenia. Behind the scenes In all three novels, there is a scene in which the main character, Graham, Rosella, and Alexander climb to the top of the castle keep or the highest parapet, or castle wall. In all three tales, they take a view over the land often seeing the nearby town, as well as the Merelee River. The river even mentioned in The Floating Castle, although the name is not given. In the TFC, the river appears to curve west or southwest cutting through the Old Wood in the southwest of Daventry. South west of Morowyn's forest, at which point it curves south again, towards the marshlands. A southwestern trending road that borders the eastern edge of the woods, somewhere south of the river. It apparently follows the northern edge of the woods.TFC, 79 Note: Strangely, despite heading west (possibly southwest) from Castle Daventry, he doesn't cross the river where it comes to its closest point near the Castle and west of the town as does in SNW (and Alexander reaches Morowyn's woods instead). He does cross a 'brook' at some point in the woods though. It's unclear if this brook is a tributary of the river or not. This would suggest that the river makes a sharp turn not to far south of where Rosella crossed, and Alexander took different set of roads that lead him southwest of the river's southern edge. He passes through the woods from its eastern edge to its furthest edge in the west, and finally meets back up with the river. There is another bridge that crosses river on its south end, and was guarded by a kelpie. Once the reach the end of the western trending hidden trail and reach the road that follows alongside the forest, directions become hard to follow in TFC. It's not mentioned if they turned right or left along the trail. Soon after they end up running into the woods. There is no mention which direction they were heading north or south. Its hard to tell if they entered the woods from the middle, and traveled northwest to the other side, or travelled southwest. One point is clear is that the marshlands and floating castle were located on the opposite side of the woods. Which ever way they were traveling when they came back out on the woods the road was to their 'right'. If they went northwest, the road then had to turn northwest and pass between the northern edge of the Old Woods and the southern edge of Morowyn's forest. In a later chapter when they are returning home, it appears they are traveling almost due east, or north east towards the castle. It mentions that the road more or less passes alongside the edges of the forest with rolling hills on the opposite side, suggesting that they were passing the forest along the northern side.This also seems to confirm that they had been traveling northwest through the woods earlier. In KQ5, a river is shown flowing from the north to the south, in about the same region. This maybe the Merelee River, or may just be the river in Serenia that turns sharply to the south near the Bee Tree. Perhaps the Merelee river and he one in Serenia are one and the same, and thus flows through both kingdoms. It may also be one of the rivers that feeds the Swamp to the northeast of Daventry. In KQ1, the Raging River & River Fools is located approximately south of the Castle Daventry, and may have inspired the Merelee River. However, based on information in the The Official Book of King's Quest, 3rd Edition, the Dangerous River section of the Raging River had filled in at some point following KQ1, and that the town of Daventry had been rebuilt on the Gnome's former island and Mushroom Isle (Land of the Leprechauns). The gnome had built his new home on the dry river bed of the former tributary. This would suggest that Merelee River was either a section of the River Fools that shifted its flow to the southwest, or represented a completely different river. Hoyle I confirms that the Raging River existed in the year following KQ3/4, apparently northeast of the gnome's house and town. if the river existed at the time of KQ1 it likely existed outside of the magical law of "containment", and to the west of the stone wall in KQ3. References category:Rivers category:Places (SNW) Category:Places (KoS)